The Swan and Cemetery

Swansea defence could have come at Antoine and co with chainsaws today and we’d have got nothing, another incredibly one sided refereeing display.

Not sure he gets that much abuse, but fair to say he gets criticised and I’d definitely be in that camp. Think it’s ambiguous between Dan and Max and in my view, neither look up to what we’d ideally like, but whether or not getting someone better is viable, not sure. A decision might need to be made around the team deliberately setting up to counteract an individual GK’s weaknesses. My starter for 10 in terms of their ‘jobs to be done’ and recent form: shot stopping: DB better, but increasingly prone to push the ball out, rather than away crosses/dominating box: both poor, maybe Dan slightly less poor organising defence in front of them: both poor sweeper-keeping: Max better in terms of both positioning (Dan very likely to be tethered to his 6 yard box when lots of space in front of him) and distribution. But not outstanding. DB of previous seasons definitely ahead, but seems to have regressed (think maybe a similar pattern at Brentford?). If he can get back to the form he’s shown in the past, Dan being number one sounds fine and dandy, but if he can’t, think we need a new keeper. in fairness to both of them, it takes a few to tango and whilst maybe they’re not imbuing the defence with confidence, it’s unlikely that they’re feeling they’ve a rock solid set up in front of them. Under performance, injuries, relatively small squad, all contributing.

Bit of Vyner about him. Not quite good enough to hold down his best position, but as a squad player has to play where asked, and as a result often looks weaker. As with Vyner looks to be on the brink of having a Championship career (Vyner at right back, COD less sure, but don’t think LWB), but mentality maybe not quite there. For both maybe now’s the time to be a bigger fish in a League One pond or remain on the edges of Championship squads. Seems odd to conclude that neither are quite up to the Championship given approx 250 games between them, but there it is!

Not really the definition of a supporter: when your performances meet my expectations I’ll be back in touch. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but when taking stances that are always looking for anything to confirm an ideological perspective, rather than adjusting views as facts change, it looks like narcissism, rather than ‘straight talking’.

Think Kalas, along with HNM and DB, gets off lightly on this forum. Does put his body on the line and does some really good stuff, but can’t be absolved of our current defensive troubles on the basis of him needing the perfect partner alongside him. Often seems to orient towards being the zonal central defender in open play, maybe that’s what he’s told to do, but often results in him not affecting play as balls come in. Still think he’s been our best defender, with Pring challenging, but it’s a low bar and he could/should be doing more to raise the bar, not be waiting for a top class partner alongside him.

Equally there are posters who when we play well say it’s all down to the wonders of our young players who are Prem bound and nothing to do with NP/CF, but when we don’t, pile into NP, lots of strong views on all sides. Clearly conceding at the rate we are isn’t sustainable, but there’s at least an argument that a fair amount is down to personnel/financial situation, but that doesn’t mean that NP can’t/shouldn’t be doing better either. I’m not sure that the defence is particularly strong and just needs better coaching, Kalas can flatter to deceive due to (high) level of commitment, Klose just getting back into playing and Pring probably more of a left back. A fit/firing Atkinson with Pring to LWB would help. It’s been alluded to somewhere else, but whilst 3 CBs has benefits (particularly given we don’t have a proven RB of 4 option), it does encourage players to assume someone else must be picking up strikers and result in CBs left in no man’s land. Think 2 CBs encourages man marking, particularly in open play, where we have too many players covering space, rather than being close to opponents - either NP/CF could do more here, or players lack the ability to carry out instructions.

Not so sure about HNM, thought he was back to his bad old days of great recovery runs due to getting out of position initially. There was one first half when he was way up the field, they had the ball, were clearly going to bypass him but he still went forward a couple of strides, when should have begun to get back in. He then (had to) made a great recovery run, but wasted effort. Thought Jay was pretty much alone in not having concrete 50 pence shaped boots on today, some really nice touches, including for the goal. Their line of 4 non pressing press was very effective at stopping us play through the thirds, thought maybe both Scott and HNM could have looked to find better positions and back 3 plus Max needed to be a bit braver with their passing out from the back. If Vyner had put in Kalas’ performance today he’d been in protective custody by now. Don’t think Bentley is the answer, but starting to think giving HWR a go might be worth a try, Max really struggles to anticipate what’s going to happen and get his feet moving accordingly. I’ve been a supporter of his, but a few too many saveable goals being conceded. All that said, whilst no point thinking we’re top 6 when we play well, equally pointless to think the world’s ending when we play badly, the folk with a ‘City lose > Pearson’s time is up’ flow chart on their bedroom wall are way off in my view. We’re inconsistent and not sure that’s likely to change for a while. Stay up, regroup, move forward. Fine with how we’re progressing currently (progress not being a straight line that means every match is better than the previous one, if nothing else, there are annoying things like opponents to get in the way).

We were very poor in bad conditions against a horrible team. Dasilva continues to show some decent touches, not sure anyone else did much, most very poor. When pretty much everyone has an off day the result is inevitable. Attack was off today, but got to work out how to get to a place where the attack not firing doesn’t automatically result in a heavy defeat. Oh well, hopefully for Reading our inconsistency yo-yos back the other way.

You can like or loathe either team, think the quality is poor (hasn’t been tonight), but difficult argue that the atmosphere at an Old Firm Derby is very special.

We can count Ferguson 3 times as each move, East Stirlingshire > St Mirren > Aberdeen > Man U each resulted in winning records (and trophies).

Think it’s okay to say player A rarely makes mistakes and therefore has more in the bank than player B, who makes more, but not reasonable to pick out player B in an incident when player A just as culpable. As a min, the ref, Pring, Semenyo (made a better run?), Massengo (didn’t really need to join in?) Williams, Weimann, Cundy, Kalas, Vyner and O’Leary could probably have done better in some way, but none of them really disastrous individual mistakes. Added together, plus Preston doing very well (defender tracked back, quick ball to the right, great cross, great finish), it resulted in a goal. Things to learn as always, but a team goal given up, not an individual error.

Hopefully Klose may help on a couple of fronts: 1. More sympathetic passes forward, saw some of that yesterday, more to chest than for unlikely flick ons; and 2. Reduce the importance of CM defensively for set pieces - think there’s been a few times this season where he might have come off with 20 mins or so to go, but NP worried that we’ll be left short defensively. Overall agree with the OP, CM is very decent striker both in terms of finishing and all round game. Another benefiting from the improvements the team are making as a whole as coaching seems to be kicking in, plus the return of Antoine.

Think the nature of that goal is really encouraging (oddly). In the not too distant past we’d have battened down the hatches for 30 mins, sitting deeper and deeper and the 412th ball into our box would result in us conceding. Yesterday, we kept pushing for more, including the last minute, get a 3rd, improve goal difference etc. Trying to score from a 2 on 1 isn’t a bad decision for me, even in the last minute, but he didn’t get the execution quite right (albeit hindered by a poor refereeing decision and fair play to the PNE player for getting back). In the medium term a team that’s brave not timid/passive is worth some short term bumps in the road.

Hopefully the progress we seem to be seeing with coaching overall helps with this as well, but agree, he comes forward with such pace and purpose that he panics the defence, that draws lots of opponents towards him, but he’s prone to hanging on slightly too long, so those 2 or 3 crowd him out, rather than release a team mate into all the space he’s created. Has the core attributes to be very, very good.

Weimann Semenyo Martin

Think HNM has improved positionally a lot, so fair play to him and NP/CF. He’s always had an engine and clearly has great ability, but sometimes he’s needed to do a lot of running to recover position - increasingly he’s starting from better positions, so his energies are used more positively. Him and Scott were all over a much vaunted PNE midfield 3. Whilst Andi didn’t have his best game, his energy and the team getting better at working with a fluid formation that makes sure we’re not overrun also helped. Would love Weston Super Mare to have the composure on the ball that Han and Alex showed, we’d have been out of sight, we’ve tendency to not see the obvious pass up front (and sometimes not make the obvious run). But a really enjoyable and promising performance overall with Han front and centre.

I’m still Max over Dan for now, but due to distribution mainly, worked well again today, particularly with Klose being calm and Kalas good bringing it out from RCB. Was more worried by Max today than against Luton, first he’s picked up Dan’s habit of a decent save palmed out to the oncoming striker rather than away from goal; second, think I agree, doesn’t move his feet quickly enough, so ball past him before he gets moving properly. Great finish though.

Exactly, shock horror footballer makes mistake and it’s an OTIB pile on. He hasn’t played that much Championship football, he shows signs of being a very good player at this level and can develop further/learn from his mistakes.

Naive a couple of times at the end by Andi and then Cam, but more about playing calm passes than running into the corner for me. Great finish by them as well. Lots of promise, lots of things to keep learning, particularly calmness when in comfortable possession.

I thought top two went up automatically?

Yep, Moore strikes me as the very opposite of someone to solve our current defensive troubles. Klose may turn out to be past it/not fit enough, but at least on paper he’s plausibly able to help defend set pieces/crosses. Other potential options are either not ready (Cundy) or no track record of solving this problem (Moore). But looking forward to the first time an opponent runs faster than him and OTIB collapses.

I think Max’s kicking is better, but more likely to take a risk, eg shortish balls into feet where an opponent might not be that far away, forcing midfield players to have the skill levels and confidence to play first time balls to create space. DB generally less likely to give the ball away in a goal scoring position, but by kicking it further, not more accurately. To me it looks like Nige being prepared to take a step back to take a step forward and think we’ve seen that elsewhere with some of his selections. A. Do you want to be on the bus? B. Let’s play more bravely and develop the relevant skills. Both A and B may result in some poor results for now, but hopefully build towards something far better. Is Max definitely the answer? There’s a fair chance he isn’t, but don’t agree with a view that says DB clearly number 1 - think his worldie rate has declined and increasingly prone to making saves that push the ball directly to opponents. Don’t think he can complain about being dropped and Max needs a bit more time, but needs to improve (along with the defence). Not a statistically robust sample but league games this season: Dan average score: F1.13 - A1.52, 1.17 points per game Max: 2.00 - 2.80, 1.20 Don’t think either goals scored (eg Antoine returning) or conceded (eg Baker/Atkinson out) are solely down to Max, neither keepers’ results indicate one massively more deserving than the other. Clearly we can judge their performances beyond somewhat dubious stats and I’d be sticking with Max, for now.

A couple of times he just leathered it… inch perfectly, 40/50 yards across the pitch… don’t feel we’ve seen that for a long time. Tinmanesque as you say.

If we can’t get better at blocking runners and attacking the ball, I’d be tempted to leave 3 up front just to reduce their numbers a bit and leave the mix of our defenders left a bit higher quality than if none, one or two left up top. Noticed recently we leave two up sometimes, which maybe implies Nige is thinking the best way to defend, with current centre back troubles in particular, is to remove some of the opponents from the penalty area.

Think this is risking looking like a habit, same problem for Cardiff’s 2nd on Saturday, lots of theirs goal side of ours. That said, agree with the view that maybe we need to adapt with Atkinson and Baker out. First goal tonight Scott lost his man, doubt anyone is expecting him to be our top defender of set pieces, so think a fair bit is down to circumstances and being shorthanded at the back. Pretty much guarantees Martin his place and a fit Williams will help as well, but a defensive aerial threat is much needed. Any chance the next Academy cab off the rank is the love child of Terry Butcher and Shaun Taylor?